Pillar Mountain Prospect: 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Duty to Pray for the Head of State and for All Mankind

In the tradition of the Orthodox Church, the two preeminent holy Apostles are Saints Peter and Paul. The teaching of these apostles is that Christians should submit to the rule of the civil authorities and obey their laws; in addition, prayer should be offered for heads of state, regardless of their religion, and for all mankind.

St. Peter wrote, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good" (2 Pet. 2:13-14). From this it is clear that Orthodox Christians should obey the civil laws -- except, obviously, when they conflict with the commandments or ethical teachings of Christ himself. Apart from that circumstance, for an Orthodox Christian to disobey law of the land, or to hold it in contempt, is unacceptable in view of the demands of our faith.

St. Peter's words are completely consistent with the command of our Lord Jesus to "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (Matt. 22:21). This command of the Lord to fulfill one's civic duty applies in a special way to those living in a democracy or democratic republic, that is, any society in which the citizens are charged with the duty of electing their political leaders. Based on these words of Christ, Orthodox Christians living in societies that have that kind of political arrangement are obliged to fulfill those duties diligently and responsibly, so that good and righteous political leaders will be chosen.

The other preeminent holy apostle, Paul, urged submission to, and prayers on behalf of, kings and civil authorities, and he did not limit this instruction to the condition that the rulers are believers. St. Paul wrote, "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior ..." (1 Tim 2:1-3).

Significantly, when St. Paul wrote those words, the Roman head of state, the Emperor, was not a Christian, and in fact the state religion of the time and place held that he was to be worshipped as a god. Despite this, St. Paul orders prayers on the emperor's behalf. From this, it is clear that the responsibility of Orthodox Christians to pray for the head of state is not conditional upon the ruler's being an Orthodox Christian or even a Christian of any kind. To the contrary, the holy Apostle clearly taught that regardless of the particular religion (if any) espoused by the head of state, prayers of every kind are to be made on his behalf.

The same passage also makes clear that it is proper, permissible, and obligatory for Orthodox Christians to pray not only for other Orthodox Christians, but for all mankind.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Environmental destruction, corporate wrongdoing, and individual sins

As Christians we know there is always grief, suffering, and death in a fallen world. But these realities are not to be considered normal - they remain abnormal and something we should work against, by trying to make the world a better place. This includes the caring for the animal and plant world, over which humans were given dominion - not to destroy, but to exercise mercy and good stewardship. The BP oil spill should cause us to really rethink how we, as human beings and as Christians, are using or abusing the world's resources and natural goodness. For God created the world and saw that it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). In the Orthodox Christian understanding, even after the fall, the natural world remained "very good," despite the entrance of death, disease, and disasters; for these elements are not regarded as intrinsic to the world's nature, but incidental to it.

The disaster raises the question: can we destroy entire oceans and bring an end to human life as we know it? Certainly it is a theoretical possibility (we depend on the oceans for oxygen and food; half of the photosynthesis that takes place in the world is the work of oceanic phytoplankton). God has promised to preserve his people, but that does not mean that large-scale destruction of the earth's health, beauty, and resources will not or cannot take place.

In fact this has already begun to happen. Carbon dioxide and mercury poisoning, and poisoning from other dangerous toxins, are a threat to the oceans. Mercury has poisoned many freshwater lakes: it is concentrated in the tissues of fish, and there are already restrictive advisories published as to how much or how often children or pregnant women should consume certain kinds of fish.

In seeking where to place the blame, can we speak of corporate sin, the sin of a body of people? Yes - any group, such as a nation or a legal corporation, can break the laws of God, which is sin. But God will not judge corporations or even nations on Judgment Day, but individuals. All corporate sin begins with individual sin and consists of collective individual sin, and will be assessed that way at the final judgment. That is, God will not assess the guilt of corporate bodies, groups, or nations at that judgment, but the guilt of individuals. But in the present life he does judge nations, as for example when he judged ancient Israel by allowing it to be conquered by other peoples and lands. Such judgments were chastisements whose purpose was to correct Israel's misdeeds; thus they were a manifestation of God's mercy in a particular way. The present disaster may indeed be both a judgment and a warning to those countries that are misusing the earth's resources, most prominently by the burning of fossil fuels but also by other forms of pollution. In this sense, the disaster may be a mercy.

While individuals, and not corporations, will be judged by God at Judgment Day, we human beings can and must, at the level of laws and legislation, judge (i.e., regulate, and where necessary, penalize) corporations for pollution and similar crimes and do what we can to prevent them.

There seems to be a lack of will to do this. We are fouling our own nest and don't want to take the trouble to avoid doing so. We are like the smoker dying of cancer who says, "Don't take my cigarettes away!" Many deny the problem and want to continue to allow pollution. Some politicians have fought hard to allow power plants to continue to pollute with mercury, CO2, and associated poisons and have opposed restricting these. Coal mining companies have removed hundreds or even thousands of mountaintops and are polluting many miles of streams and valleys in order that power plants can continue to burn coal and produce those emissions. The desire for money and riches lies at the root of much of this.

We have until now lacked the will, as a nation, to stop doing these things, to stop destroying our own house. As long as we lack the will to correct this, it will continue. In that these things are destructive to our very own selves, to our own lives, they are no different from any other type of sin: all sins are self-destructive.

Many continue to deny the problems even though they are staring us in the face. Besides the reality of oil spills and related pollution, there is global warming, melting of glaciers and so on. Corporations (especially the oil industry) have paid millions of dollars to pay for the dissemination of false information about global warming.

All of this begins with individual responsibility or irresponsibility and individual right and wrong, which, of course, in relation to God is called sin. Environmental problems caused by man seem to begin with greed, with selfishness, with laziness, and with not wanting to do the right thing. Like all sins, these are the antithesis of right ethics and specifically of their opposite corresponding virtues. The latter are enabled and cultivated by a combination of right faith, prayer, and repentance and by everything good at the individual level, all of which diminish and extinguish sins and wrongs. May God help us and have mercy on us.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Visits to Ouzinkie and Port Lions

On Monday, May 24, a group of seminarians unexpectedly visited Ouzinkie, Alaska. Ouzinkie is a village on Spruce Island, the same island that St. Herman lived and reposed on. It was a beautiful day and the first time some of us had seen the attractive village of Ouzinkie at ground level. We had a prayer service in the small church of the Nativity and then a picnic on the beach.

Usually the St. Herman's Seminary community visits Spruce Island and St. Herman's grave once during the spring and has a Divine Liturgy there. Our dean and one seminarian had been at Ouzinkie for Pentecost and they were able to reach Monk's Lagoon today for the Day of the Holy Spirit. But the rest of us, coming from Kodiak, were unable to land safely at the Lagoon today because of the surf. So after some deliberation we went to Ouzinkie instead, which is at the other end of Spruce island. There we did a prayer service with akathist in the church and then had our lunch and headed back. We felt the Holy Spirit arranged things so that we went to Ouzinkie.

We were grateful to Andy and Tatiana Berestoff who provided transportation on their fishing boat. There were 8 adults and 18 children in our group. The waters were somewhat choppy on the way over, but for the return weather conditions were warmer and sunnier, and the water calmer.

Ouzinkie has a boardwalk from the boat dock to the church that is just a beautiful scenic walk, framed by grassy hillside and shady trees. The church is beautiful!

This came on the heels of a memorable weekend trip to Port Lions. Several of us from the seminary community joined a large group form St. Innocent Academy in making the trip for Pentecost. The Academy provided the singing for the services and also put on meals and performances for the community. After the vespers service with kneeling prayers, we did a prayer for the renovation of the church. We then had lunch during which the Alutiiq Dancers from Port Lions entertained us with their graceful dances. And then we got busy removing everything from the church building in preparation for renovations now going on.

Glory to God!

Monday, March 22, 2010

The fruit of the Spirit is peace

"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:5-7).

Probably it was the tension over the upcoming healthcare vote that led me to post the above on facebook: the words, though, address every situation, not just the healthcare bill. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. Clearly it is the will of God that we should not be troubled about anything. "Let not your hearts be troubled" was what Jesus said; "Be anxious for nothing" were Paul's words.

But about the disquiet occasioned by the healthcare bill. From what I can discern many were on edge because they thought this bill would somehow take away our freedom. As absurd as it may seem, comparisons were made to Stalinism and Nazi Germany. One big issue seemed to be the new requirement that people purchase health insurance.

But it occurred to me this is nothing new at all: we've been required to buy car insurance for decades (unless you didn't own a car), and no one ever thought anything of that. And families with low income will receive a subsidy to help them buy the insurance.

Unjust? UnAmerican? Unconstitutional? There is, in fact, a strong element of justice about it. Before, if you didn't buy health insurance because you were healthy, and then if you did get sick, everyone else had to carry the burden of paying for your care. And that's one of the main things that made the current system untenable, that messed it up. Now, everyone will have to at least do a little bit to carry their own weight, but graduated according to one's ability to pay.

In many ways this new law will create freedom, not take it away. People will be free to change jobs. You will be free to keep your house if you get sick, and not have to sell it, because now your medical insurance policy can't be dropped by your insurance company.

I think the concerns about abortion were originally reasonable but they were addressed in the Senate version by the segregation of funds. Other protections were added to the law, and at the end Obama agreed to make the executive order that sealed the deal. But even without those protections, I think anyone who really wanted an abortion was already getting one, so the new law would have changed nothing.

With the last minute changes, even Bart Stupak signed on. Yet someone shouted "Baby killer!" at Stupak. In the end it was clear that there was nothing that could have been done to satisfy those who opposed the bill because of abortion, or who were using abortion as a way to kill the bill.

David Gushee noted that "There are two deeply pro-life measures in the bill ... Establishment and funding of programs to support vulnerable pregnant women and thus prevent abortion from the demand side [and] Increase of the adoption tax credit and a provision to make it refundable so that lower income families can access the tax credit."

When you think of the many bad things that are corrected by this law, and how many people it will help, we should rejoice.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

One cannot love the unborn if one does not love the born

"He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (First Letter of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian; 1 John 4:20).

By the same principle, he who does not love the sick born person whom he has seen, cannot love the unborn fetus whom he has not seen. This is clear from what St. John the Apostle has written.

And what does that love consist of? What does love for the sick consist of? It's clear from the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) that it consists not in preaching to them, but in providing care for them. For love is shown "not in words or talk" by "in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

The point is that he who does not believe adequate, quality health care should be provided to all born people, for the preservation of their health and life, will not be taken seriously, and will not be believed, when he professes to be concerned for the welfare and lives of the unborn.

For how can a person sincerely love the unborn whom he has not seen, when he fails to manifest love, concern, and care for the born whom he has seen?

We who want people to listen and to take us seriously when we speak of the sanctity of life and when we express our belief that the lives of the unborn are precious and should be preserved, need to show that we are sincere, by vigorously advocating that full, quality healthcare be available to all people, regardless of their ability to pay. Otherwise our purported concern for the unborn will not have the ring of truth.

And that will have consequences not only for the unborn, but for even more important things: our Christian faith itself will also be mocked as insincere.

If we wish to give people a reason to take our message of Christ and his Cross seriously by showing concern for the lives of the unborn, we are destined to fail, and our message to be rejected, if we do not, at the same time, speak out about the need to preserve the health and lives of the born by providing adequate and quality health care for all, particularly at a time when this issue is being discussed and debated in our society.

Pillar Mountain Prospect